


Where Eyes Meet

by pizza_dog



Category: Mushishi, Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 09:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18070487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pizza_dog/pseuds/pizza_dog
Summary: Kakashi wanders the dark in search of a distant light. Ginko warns him not to get too close.





	Where Eyes Meet

Kakashi had many recurring dreams. Most left him shuddering awake, drenched in cold sweat. Except for one. 

It began as a twinkle in the darkness, the only point of light in the whole world. It was warm, winking, beckoning. Eleven years old and shoulders already heavy from life, Kakashi walked towards it, braving the darkness until he was tired--and then he woke.

Whenever the dream returned, the light whispered to him. 

By the time he was twenty-one and fresh out of ANBU, it was closer. His progress had been steady, and now he saw the endless darkness was not so endless. In fact, the light sliced right through it, at first a strand of hair, and then a snake slithering ever onward. And then, he felt the thrum. No. No, this was a River.

And the River, unlike the darkness, had no end. The sound of it poured into his ears and sloshed in his skull. It was hypnotic. After seventeen years of dreamwalking, he met the shore. Suddenly weak in the knees, Kakashi kneeled. Both eyes opened to soak up the light. The Sharingan spinned: it was less like water but more like a billion billion flecks of firefly light, floating and twirling and dancing together. It pulsed like an artery. He reached to dip his palm into the flow.

A hand clasped his shoulder, stopping him. “I wouldn’t get any closer, if I were you.” 

Kakashi’s eyes fluttered awake, the stranger’s voice echoing in his mind. When he closed his eyes, he could almost see it still. But when his feet touched the tatami, he was no longer a hopeful refugee; he was a shinobi. Yet his thoughts remained on the shoreline, waiting, ruminating, subsumed by the River of Light. It felt like chakra, like prayer, like life itself. 

The day moved on like a dream.

“Captain. Are you with us? It’s time to go.” The Boar ANBU murmured, bringing Wolf back to attention. With his genin gone, he had temporarily returned to the shadow of ANBU--only to finally find this Light. 

“Yeah. Thanks,” he said to Boar, under his breath. Then to the squad: “Head out!”

When he drifted off again that night, with stiff joints and blood beneath his fingernails, he left the cold forest floor behind and found himself at the Shore. Now he noticed the figure sitting on the other side. The man was shrouded in the dark, but his white hair and pale skin were bright. The stranger faced away from the shore; how could he not want to face this light, to bathe in it? 

Kakashi knew that if he could just touch it, he would know all those things he longed for: the warmth of another’s touch. Freedom from the shackles of grief. Belongingness, instead of apartness. Old injuries and persistent aches would wash away in the current. Misdeeds and inactions would be absolved. He would be complete. He licked his lips. His fingers twitched.

And then, defying his will, Kakashi sat with his back to the Light. As if no time had passed since the stranger had held him back from the edge, Kakashi breathed, “Why?” 

“You’ll lose yourself. And if you stare at it long enough, you’ll lose your eyes.” The stranger turned his head; there was blackness in one hollow socket. “Trust me, I know.” 

“What is this place?”

“It is called the River of Light," the stranger answered simply. "It's alive. Few can see it. But that eye lets you see things others can't, doesn't it?” 

He had many questions. But first: “Who are you?”

“Just a traveler.” He turned away.

Kakashi hummed. He’d waited seventeen years for this moment. “I’m a traveler, too.”

After a lifetime of stormy weather, the clouds parted, and sunlight smiled down on his shoulders. The Light embraced him until the Dark reclaimed him for a new day.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a concept I've had in my head for a long time. I feel like it's still underdeveloped, so maybe I'll edit or add to this some day. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
